When someone in Delhi wakes up with a toothache or a feverish child, they rarely go looking for a clinic’s website first. They type “dentist near me” or “child specialist Rohini” into Google on their phone, or they call Justdial, or they ask in the family WhatsApp group. Whatever comes up first, with a phone number and an address that looks close, gets the call.
For a small clinic or an individual doctor, this is where patients are won or lost. And most of the listings we see for doctors are incomplete, out of date, or were created by someone else years ago with the wrong details.
Here is how we suggest doctors clean up their clinic listings on Google Maps and the other places where new patients most often find them.
Start with Google
When a person searches for a type of doctor with a locality, Google often shows a map with a few local listings before the normal results. Those listings come from Google’s local business information, which you manage through Google Places for Business. The public-facing version is your Google+ Local page.
Check whether a listing already exists
Search for your clinic’s name and locality on Google and on Google Maps. There is a good chance a listing exists already, created automatically from directory data or by a patient. If it does, claim it. Google will verify that you are the owner, usually by sending a postcard with a PIN to the clinic address. In our experience the postcard can take a couple of weeks to arrive in Delhi, so start now, and tell whoever collects the post at the clinic to keep an eye out for it.
If there are duplicate listings, for example one under the doctor’s name and one under the clinic’s name, with different phone numbers, deal with those too. Duplicates confuse Google and confuse patients.
Fill in everything, accurately
- The clinic name as it appears on your board. Don’t add keywords like “Best Skin Clinic Delhi” to the name.
- The full address with locality and a landmark that patients recognise.
- A phone number that is answered during clinic hours. A landline plus a mobile is fine.
- Your real timings, including the lunch break and the days the clinic is closed.
- The right category, such as dentist, paediatrician or physiotherapist.
- A few clear photos: the entrance from the road, the reception, a treatment room.
The entrance photo matters more than people expect. In Delhi, many clinics are on the first floor of a market building or inside a residential colony. A photo of the stairs next to the chemist shop tells a nervous patient they are in the right place.
Justdial and other directories
A large number of people in Delhi still call or search Justdial when they need a doctor, a plumber or a caterer. If your clinic is listed there, check the details. Wrong numbers and old addresses are common, especially if the clinic moved or the doctor changed their mobile number.
You don’t need to buy a paid package to correct a free listing. Whether a paid package is worth it depends on your speciality and how much competition there is in your area. We suggest correcting the free listing first and watching for a couple of months how many calls you get before you spend anything.
Doctors are also listing themselves on Practo, which lets patients search by speciality and locality. If you use any of these platforms, keep the timings and fees consistent with what your clinic actually charges. Nothing annoys a patient more than arriving to find the fee or the timing was different from what the listing said.
Keep the details the same everywhere
This is a simple rule that makes a real difference. Your clinic name, address and phone number should be written the same way on Google, on Justdial, on Practo, on your website and on your letterhead. If one place says “B-12, Second Floor” and another says “B Block, 12, 2nd floor, above Sharma Medicos”, patients and search engines both have to work harder to be sure it is the same place.
Make a short document with the exact version of your details and use it every time you fill a form or create a listing. Give it to your receptionist too.
Reviews: handle them carefully
Patients can leave reviews on Google and on several directories. Good reviews help. A few bad ones are normal for any busy clinic. What matters is how you respond.
Be careful here. A doctor replying to a review must not confirm that the reviewer was a patient, or say anything about their condition or treatment. Even a well-meant reply such as “We are sorry your root canal was painful” discloses something about that person in public. A safer reply thanks them for the feedback, says you take it seriously, and invites them to call the clinic directly so you can understand what happened.
Don’t ask staff or relatives to write reviews, and don’t offer discounts in exchange for them. Apart from being against the rules of most platforms, patients can usually tell.
Reply to a review as if the patient’s family and your medical council were both reading it, because one day they might be.
A word on advertising rules
Doctors in India work under professional conduct rules from the Medical Council of India that restrict how doctors can promote themselves. A factual listing with your name, qualifications, address, timings and contact number is a very different thing from an advertisement claiming you are the best in the city or promising results. We keep listings factual for that reason. If you are unsure about any wording, check with your own professional association or adviser before publishing.
A simple monthly check
Once everything is set up, it doesn’t take much time to maintain. Once a month, someone at the clinic should:
- Search for the clinic on Google and Google Maps and check the details are still right.
- Update timings for any upcoming holidays or leave.
- Read new reviews and respond where needed.
- Check the Justdial and Practo listings for wrong numbers or changed fees.
Thirty minutes a month. For most small clinics, that half hour will bring in more new patients than a new website or a Facebook page will, at least to begin with. Get the listings right first, then think about the rest.
